


Dispelling a Shadow

by Bonfoi



Series: The Shadows [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fluff and Angst, M/M, OOC-ness, Romance, TSS, The Silver Snitch, written in 2005
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-07-25
Updated: 2005-07-25
Packaged: 2017-11-23 09:02:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/620399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bonfoi/pseuds/Bonfoi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Silence doesn't have to be scary...</p><hr/><p>Epilogue to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/620385">The Shadow Behind You</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Dispelling a Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> **Original A/N:** Forgive an author who needed to set this bit of prose free… [In the comments for "The Shadow Behind You,"] I was called a ‘hopeless romantic,’ and this just sprang—almost full-grown like Athena—from my mind. I think I’ll always be a ‘hopeful romantic’, if no one really minds, and even if you did…pfft! Better to hope for the good, than to be shadowed by the evils of our world. _Minor editing: 1-2-13_

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**_Disclaimer:_** The world of Harry Potter, its characters and settings are the copyrighted works of J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., her publishing companies and affiliates. No profit was made from the writing of this story nor was any malice intended in any way, shape or form to the author or the actors/actresses who so brilliantly have brought them to life. 

This author is not responsible for underage readers. Please observe the ratings, warnings, and age of legal consent for your country.

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**Epilogue to The Shadow Behind You**

Ten years. Today was the ten-year anniversary of Voldemort’s defeat. For the past year, Harry hadn’t screamed once.

It had taken a team of mediwizards, many of them Muggle-born or half-blooded, working around the clock for seven of those ten years, to pull Harry Potter back into the present. In all that time, Severus had never stopped hoping. If he did, they may as well have died together.

Their sons, adopted two years after Severus and Harry had, somehow, had their bond officially ratified, were curled up next to the now quiescent Harry Snape. They were all tired out from an impromptu picnic that afternoon, falling into an easy nap in the shade. Yet, those seeker’s hands never stopped touching them, even in his sleep. They were his anchors when Severus couldn’t be there.

Shifting in his sleep, Harry pushed into Severus’ side, much like he had done that first night after the defeat. This time, there were not hoarse screams or pained whimpers; there were only the soft sounds of a man asleep. Time may not have healed all their wounds, but it had given them each other, and that counted for something in the cosmic scheme of things.

Curled protectively around the still young man whose trademark black locks had flashed to brilliant white as he’d screamed his agony, Severus reached out a hand to touch his boys. Terence had lost an eye to a Death Eater attack when he was a baby; Pippin was missing two fingers because Dolohov had been playing ‘nice’. Yet they had the sunniest dispositions of any child, and took great delight in teasing their fathers. All of them were scarred in some way, shape, or form, but, together, they made a functioning, loving family.

It was because of Harry’s ‘hero complex’ and Severus’ unbending belief that his lover was still inside the shattered being of their savior that the chance to bond, and adopt, had been taken. After the war they’d volunteered at orphanages since Harry couldn’t stand being with many adults. Terence and Pippin had cast their dark eyes at Harry on one of his good days, and he’d been smitten. Each day he saw them, he screamed less and less; he had someone to focus on, besides Severus, and that brought him to himself more and more.

Now, Terence was eleven and Pippin the ripe old age of eight. Harry was chafing for another child; he had so much love to give, and he adored the soft side of the former ‘greasy git of a bat’ he’d married. By saving Harry after the battles were done, Severus had given himself heartache and love unmatched; he didn’t think he would change a thing that had gotten him this close to perfection.

Today, the papers for their third child were signed. Ten years to the day that Harry Potter had been screaming in a hell of Voldemort’s making, they would be celebrating his rebirth: Sorcha Wiggins—whose parents really had been killed in a car accident as they hid among the Muggles—would become Sorcha Snape, and the newest member of the Snape family. 

The current Headmaster of Hogwarts smiled down on his family. Without the brat once known as Harry Potter he would never have had this. His arms tightened slightly, and Harry sighed into his neck. No, he couldn’t wait to share it all with little Sorcha.

**~~~ FINIS ~~~ ******

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_~~~ Comments, like rain in the desert, are greatly appreciated.  
Thank you for reading. ~~~_  


**Author's Note:**

> There's a lot of pain in my own life, and I remember how wrenching writing "The Shadow Behind You" felt. I couldn't let this 'verse I'd created go in such a dark manner, and I can still feel the urge that woke me up to write this epilogue every time I read it over.


End file.
